1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automobile air conditioner and more particularly to a desiccator container for automobile air conditioner with improved adaptability.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Air conditioning is important in providing a comfortable environment for passenger(s) in an automobile while driving. This is especially true in a high temperature outdoor environment. Conventionally, it is impossible to completely prevent water from entering the air conditioning system of an automobile. The problem of refrigerant pipes of air conditioning system containing water is that the heat exchange efficiency of the system is lowered due to the mixing of refrigerant and water. Hence, the performance of automobile air conditioner is degraded and the load of compressor is increased. As a result, the consumption of energy (e.g., fuel) is significantly increased. An improvement to above problem is the installation of a desiccator container in the air conditioning system for absorbing water contained in refrigerant. It is found that there are a variety of desiccator containers commercially available. For example, a conventional cylindrical desiccator container 7 is shown in FIG. 1 wherein an inlet connector 71 at one end of an inlet line 711 and an outlet connector 72 at one end of an outlet line 721 are oppositely provided on the circumferential surface of desiccator container 7 and a test connector 73 is provided between inlet connector 71 and outlet connector 72. Desiccator container 7 is provided in a predetermined position of refrigerant pipe such that water contained in refrigerant may be absorbed by the container 7 when refrigerant is circulated through the refrigerant pipe. A probe of a test device (not shown) may be coupled to test connector 73 for measuring the remained amount of desiccator in order to determine whether it is necessary to replace the current desiccator container 7 with a new one. Another conventional cylindrical desiccator container 7 is shown in FIG. 2 wherein outlet connector 74 and test connector 73 are oppositely provided on the circumferential surface of desiccator container 7 and inlet connector 71 is equally spaced apart from outlet connector 74 and test connector 73. Still another conventional cylindrical desiccator container 7 is shown in FIG. 3 wherein all inlet connector 71, outlet connector 72, and test connector 731 are provided on the top of desiccator container 7. In view of above, it is impossible to replace one type of desiccator container 7 (e.g., the one shown in FIG. 1) with another type of desiccator container 7 (e.g., the one shown in FIG. 2) if the former does not function normally. This may increase the manufacturing and maintenance costs of desiccator containers which are inevitably borne on automobile component manufactures and consumers accordingly.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a desiccator container provided in a predetermined position of a refrigerant pipe of an automobile air conditioner for absorbing water contained in refrigerant circulated in the refrigerant pipe, the desiccator container comprising an inlet connector, an outlet connector, a test connector, a pair of first bolts, a pair of second bolts smaller than the first bolts, four first threaded holes, and three second threaded holes smaller than the first threaded holes. This can increase the adaptability of the desiccator container, thereby reducing the manufacturing and maintenance costs.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.